What happened to Separation of Church and State?

Hey, if Mittens becomes SecState, he's what, like 4th in the line of succession? Maybe with some luck and magic golden plates...

 

I would have voted for Obama before I would have voted for Mitt Romney.

 

Hey guys, You may have never read the Constitution but there is no clause in any founding document that states anything like separation of church and state. That is a Communist article in their constitution. That doctrine is a modern invention meant to take prayer out of schools, wrongly. Lawyers took something Jefferson said in a private letter used it in liberal court to make it almost legal and the leftist press keeps saying it as big lie. Repeated enough people believe it. It is not true.

 

Would that the folk who claim to read their Constitution understood it better for the reading of it.

Amazing as it may seem, students in government schools, provided that their prayers are student initiated, voluntarily entered into, and do not disrupt the class/school, may pray without any problem. The only issue is when government officials, using their official authority, to lead prayer or religious activities, endorse particular sectarian religious devotions, or proselytize their particular religious beliefs to their students. The claim that prayer has been taken out of schools is misleading and dishonest. Non Government schools may of course run their schools like madrassas, yeshivas, monasteries, and nunneries as far as the government is concerned....students in non government schools can spend all day, rocking, praying, conducting ritual sacrifices, or just about any other religious mumbo jumbo that takes their fancy, or the fancy of their teachers and school administrators....that would generally not be a concern to the government unless there were some compelling government interest. (Employment Division vs Smith refers: Employment Division v. Smith - Wikipedia)

Edit: That said, Government schools are free to study the Christian Bible, Quran, Tanakh as literature (fan fiction in my view) or as cultural artifacts, as inspirations for artistic expression....government schools simply cannot endorse any of the claims in any of these sacred texts as being the exclusive truth, or factual in any way: That's what Churches are for.

 

I would say there is very little chance of Romney ever getting nominated as SoS, even if somehow the current nominee should fail confirmation (in itself a very small chance).

 

Chell, that ruling may be correct. However states and individual schools are attacked at every chance by anti Christian activists that are threatened with law suits if any Christian event or prayer takes place. Most of the time the schools give in without a fight. Some cases do go to court and the Christians generally win.
In some cases the same schools allow Muslim prayer.

 

I'd be happy for you to cite instances.

You portray the plaintiffs in such law suits as anti Christian activists....the ACLU and others are equal opportunity 1st Amendment establishment clause and free exercise clause litigants.

Any Christian event or prayer??? The ACLU, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Appignani Humanist Legal Center and others, don't have unlimited resources to litigate 1st Amendment violations...they tend to take the cases that are clear violations of the 1st Amendment, and have a sufficiently solid case to have a high probability expectation of success. Student initiated and lead prayer continues goes on without hindrance, unless there is official involvement by government officials that pulls it over the boundary that would cause a breach.

They are the sensible ones who chose not to waste scarce valuable resources on defending an unwinnable case which is a clear 1st Amendment violation. Dumb@$$ school boards and administrators will sometimes (more often than is justified), fight unwinnable cases: the financial burden of which is borne by students, teachers; and the taxpayers who vote these morons into office.

Is that actually so? Evidence? The following are but a few leading cases upon which First Amendment establishment clause case law precedents have been established. Each have resulted in a hiding to none for theists.

Engel v. Vitale - Wikipedia
Abington School District v. Schempp - Wikipedia
Ahlquist v. Cranston - Wikipedia
Lemon v. Kurtzman - Wikipedia
Murray v. Curlett | law case
Lee v. Weisman - Wikipedia

Religious Liberty: Landmark Supreme Cases - Bill of Rights Institute

Again....your evidence?

(Emphasis and underlining mine - VC) Accommodating students' personal observation of their faith, whichever faith it may be, is not in breach of the Constitution; Government, via its officials (paid and voluntary) assuming the role of directing what faith observances will be conducted and determining the content of those observances is not Constitutional.

How one Minnesota school district handles a rising immigrant population

Mind you, that doesn't seem to stop Christians from slandering their fellow Muslim theists, and the school that accommodates the spiritual needs of both groups of students, as mandated by the US Constitution's "Free Exercise" (of Religion) clause.

FALSE: American Schools Buying Prayer Rugs for Muslims

Here is one school which fell foul of the First Amendment
Constitutional Law litigators....The ACLU Takes a Muslim School to Court: Islam and the West

There are no compelling reasons why the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, of the Humanist legal Centre would aver from litigating against Muslim transgressors of the First Amendment establishment clause.


http://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/centers/boisi/pdf/bc_papers/BCP-ChurchState.pdf